India's indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas will participate in the 70th-anniversary celebrations of the Sri Lankan Air Force on an invitation extended by SLAF commander Air Marshal Sudarshana Pathirana.The fighter aircraft will be showcased during the air show at Galle Face in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo from March 3-5.Besides, the Indian Air Force aerobatic display teams -- the fixed wing 'Suryakirans' and rotary wing 'Sarang' will also participate in the event.
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The IAF and the Sri Lankan Air Force have seen active exchanges and interactions for a number of years in diverse fields like training, operational exchanges and professional military education courses, IAF Spokesperson Wing Commander Indranil Nandi said.IAF's participation in the 70th-anniversary celebration of SLAF is a further manifestation of the strong professional bonds that the two Air Forces share, he said.The IAF Suryakiran Aerobatic Team had earlier toured Sri Lanka in 2001 for the 50th-anniversary celebrations of SLAF.
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As the IAF aircraft take to the skies of Colombo to mark the event, they will script another significant chapter in the traditionally strong IAF-SLAF ties, Wing Commander Nandi added.During the Aero India show in Bengaluru this year, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) CMD R Madhavan had said that "countries from the Middle East and Southeast Asia have expressed their interest in the indigenous LCA Tejas Mk-1A fighter at a vanilla price of just Rs 309 crore per aircraft".Countries like Sri Lanka and Egypt had shown interest in the LCA Tejas project. The government has set a defence export target of $5 billion in the next five years. And defence PSUs. including the HAL are working towards achieving this target.
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